Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
I’ve just completed a new project and something’s been niggling at me. It’s set in The Hamptons, a well-known playground for the rich and famous. Specifically, the town of East Hampton, generally considered to be the “Best Hampton” (Sorry, Southampton) as opposed to where I used to live, Westhampton, described on the TV show, Royal …
Continue reading “Libelous Liabilities”
I’m sure most writers know how to craft a major character; they understand the importance of their leads and that they should occupy the most page space. Yet every story needs supporting characters. Today, it’s all about the minor players, those characters we see briefly and yet are so well written they’ll stick with us. …
Continue reading “6 Tips for Writing Minor Characters”
I was pondering love the other day. I am blessed to be surrounded by love from family and friends. But as I pondered, I realized something that was never in my consciousness before. Love is a piss-poor word. (Excuse the French!) How can we have a language with so many words for “pants” (trousers, slacks, …
Continue reading “All We Need is Love”
I haven’t been a student in a long time, but September still feels like the beginning of the new year. I don’t always treat it as such, but this year I’ve decided I need a fresh start. Last year was a slog of, well, failing to finish a novel and I’m feeling pretty crappy about that. …
Continue reading “Writer’s Back-To-School To Do List”
I awoke the other morning at around eight and my pulse rate instantly spiked. No, I wasn’t having sex, nor had I just awakened from a night terror, I’d simply flicked on the Today Show. My pulse usually languishes for about an hour or so because I never seem to be able to drag my …
Continue reading “The Anti-Feminism Movement: Confusing the Issues”
Last week I wrote about the vitality that male crit partners bring to your writing process. I admitted to my prejudices, that I thought men were mostly into political thrillers, sports biographies, and the like, and hinted that I was shocked to discover how many men were avid readers of romance novels; and a significant …
Continue reading “Trashing Romance Novels: Why?”
Over the last year I’ve done a large number of posts on character archetypes; you can read some of those posts here. I write these posts because I’m obsessed with creating groups of coordinating and contrasting characters. Some of my favorite books, TV shows and movies combine characters to create an interconnected web of personalities. …
Continue reading “Assembly Required: Create an Ensemble Book Cast”
The word “retreat” comes to us from Latin via Old French and Middle English. The root means “pull back.” Now that makes sense for military actions, but when it comes to writing, a retreat is a major step forward. As a noun “retreat” can be a place or an action. When planning a writing retreat, …
Continue reading “Five Essentials for a Successful Writing Retreat”
I should start calling this the “Spoilers” series, because if you haven’t read CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein or DANGEROUS GIRLS by Abby MacDonald, stop reading this post right now. Heck, I’m not even going to tell you the real topic of discussion until you read those books. Go! Did you read them? Okay, …
Continue reading “Reading for Writers 101: Narrators”
I call it The Beast. As a mental health professional, the death of Robin Williams struck a profound chord. He had it all – fame, money, respect, children, a new marriage. Many people are asking – how could he? We’ll never know what happened in his head, but clearly he saw exiting the world as …
Continue reading “Writing Is My Prozac”